Ever since I drew my first campaign map back in the day, I’ve enjoyed worldbuilding and setting design. Having worked on the Midgard Worldbook and Southlands Worldbook, I leapt at the chance to write part of the Labyrinth Worldbook. Here are some of the things I loved about working on this fantastic project.
The Labyrinth Worldbook is on sale now!
Collaborative Design
The design process for the Labyrinth Worldbook has been highly collaborative, something I’ve enjoyed a lot. Often when you’re doing freelance game design, you’re given a brief and a deadline, and then you’re on your own. You sit at your computer and write, perhaps only hearing from the publisher or editor when you turn the project over at the end.
Working on the Labyrinth Worldbook was very different. The project began with a kickoff meeting back in November 2023 when Wolfgang ran through a top-level overview of the Labyrinth, including the setting’s look and feel, how traveling through the Labyrinth works, the major heroic and villainous factions and NPCs, and the overall cosmology.
Just before Christmas that year, I got a detailed outline of the project and an early draft of the Guide to the Labyrinth. I went to the first in a series of monthly design meetings over Zoom with Wolfgang (lead designer on the project), and Celeste (senior game designer).
These meetings were a chance for the three of us to share work in progress and ask questions, agree what monsters we should include, discuss exciting new things that we wanted to create to tie into each other’s sections, and decide what art and maps we needed to write briefs for. They were a lot of fun and I always came away from them with tons of ideas. I got to see several pieces of art in progress too, which was very cool.
It was in these meetings that we decided to illustrate the Bubbler (a weird toad-like being who lives in a well, and whose skin certain Dreamers lick to travel to new worlds), to make his skin secretions into a potion, and to create a monster stat block for his spawn. We decided that there was a sky above the Smithy, that Charun was worshipped in the setting (which in turn led to Wolfgang creating the Boatwrights faction), that Nidhogg was a deity rather than a big monster, and that the Last Cathedral was led by two undead brothers: the Lich King and the King of the Death Knights. Finally, we came up with a series of adventure outlines for the freelancers working on Labyrinth Tales.
Expanding the Worlds of the Labyrinth
Over half of my contribution to the Worldbook was Chapter 2, Worlds of the Labyrinth. I described and mapped the Smithy, the “bottled city” at the heart of the Labyrinth which serves as the headquarters of the Keepers of the Keys, detailed several important planes and planar pathways, including the Astral Sea, the River Styx, and Yggdrasil, and expanded the core worlds described by Wolfgang in the Guide to the Labyrinth, adding new locations, factions and NPCs, and adventure hooks and potential sources of conflict, as well as sketching new maps.
I was thrilled to have the Lands of Parsantium, my own published campaign setting, join the ranks of these core worlds. It’s a heroic world of Byzantine intrigue, centered on the Free City of Parsantium, where storied cultures collide in a melting pot filled with evil cults, unscrupulous politicians, scheming serpentfolk, ancient dungeons, powerful criminal gangs, gladiators, and chariot racing. I’m excited to introduce the setting to new readers in the pages of the Worldbook.
Finally, I got to describe a ton of really nasty places, from the “friendly Hell” of Tyver-Sarok, to the Roots of Nidhogg where the great serpent-wyrm seeks to fell Yggdrasil and bring about the end of the multiverse, to the Citadel of Lost Hope, the void saint Nargoth’s stronghold in the Deep Void. All of these places make great adventure sites for the bravest player characters.
New Meets Old
If you’ve read the Guide to the Labyrinth, you’ll know that Midgard is one of the core worlds of the Labyrinth. One of the big joys for me in working on this book after many years of creating material for Kobold Press and running games in Midgard, was the chance to combine the new setting information with the past 18+ years of publishing.
As well as Midgard, the Labyrinth incorporates Yggdrasil, the Summer Lands, the Shadow Realm, the Hells, the Dry Lands and many famous (and infamous) NPCs. It was great fun (and often a challenge) to reconcile past lore to create a coherent setting. Sometimes, a bit of retconning was needed to reflect the change in game systems or to resolve inconsistencies. But long-time Kobold fans will find lots to enjoy as the wider cosmology beyond Midgard is revealed. Look out for some favorite characters making cameo appearances too!
Brand New Villains (and Old Favorites)
As well as describing locations in the Void, I also got to write three of the setting’s major villainous factions: the Great Chantry of the Voidmother, the Last Cathedral, and the Servants of Nidhogg. The Great Chantry will be familiar to Warlock readers, while the undead brothers of the Last Cathedral and the Servants of Nidhogg, led by the infamous Nargoth, are brand new. All three factions seek to destroy the worlds of the Labyrinth in their own unique ways and make excellent campaign threats to oppose your players.
Designing for Tales of the Valiant
Lastly, this was my first chance to design some player options for the Tales of the Valiant roleplaying game. I got to bring some much-loved classic races into the Labyrinth as lineages, including the gearforged and, of course, the minotaur, as well as some new dwarf and elf variants.
I also designed six new heritages including Boatwright, Old Ways, and Steam and Brass, and some fun backgrounds for Labyrinth-based adventurers. These include a Cult Escapee, and backgrounds specific to each of the major heroic factions.
I hope you enjoy reading and using the Labyrinth Worldbook as much as I enjoyed writing it.